Tiny Lafayette suddenly becoming a craft beer haven

Front Range Brewing Co. was the first brewery to open in Lafayette. Another brewery, Odd 13, opened three weeks later and by the end of the year one more is expected to open.

On the eastern fringe of Boulder County in the funky and eclectic town of Lafayette, a beer scene has suddenly erupted.

This summer in the town of 26,000 people, two breweries with taprooms opened within a few weeks of each other. And another brewery/restaurant is on the verge of opening by the end of the year that will be headed by a nationally known brewer.

“It is just a huge phenomenon that is now happening in our little corner of the world,” said Vicki Trumbo, executive director of the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce. “People are talking more about these breweries coming in than any other industry in the past few years.”

Front Range Brewing is co-owned by Chris Dutton and Will Boggs, who are offering experimental craft beers.

“Lafayette has an image of a home town and a close knit community. The breweries enhance that feel,” said Debbie Wilmot, city spokeswoman.

The first to open was Front Range Brewing, a dream turned reality for 37-year-old Chris Dutton, who quit his IT job to open the seven-barrel brewery in the Lafayette Marketplace with used and re-purposed equipment.

“This is just one of those places that didn’t have any craft beer breweries and people had a thirst,” Dutton said. “Everyone had the same idea a few months ago.”

Dutton, 37, a homebrewer for several years, is focusing on experimental brews and will also have some mainstays.

“The biggest learning curve for me is you can’t just brew anything you want,” he said.
“You have to do that delicate balance of brewing what you want and doing business. We are focusing on core beers but also will do barrel-aged beers.”

His current lineup has a farmhouse ale, blonde, IPA, wheat, imperial milk stout and lemon wheat beer. But his other concoctions sound very interesting, such as the joint effort with Fate Brewing for a sweet potato brown ale and using his homebrew carboys for one-off beers that he describes in his blog[4].

Odd 13’s owner and head brewer Ryan Scott also was a homebrewer for several years before deciding to follow his dream. He hopes to pattern his 10-barrel system after Russian River Brewing Co. [5] with American-style hoppy beers next to Belgians and sours.

“Lafayette has welcomed us with open arms,” said Scott, 34, who still works at a software company in Boulder during the day. By night and on the weekends and while on vacation, Scott has been brewing. He said he almost cannot keep up with demand, so he has hired another brewer. His most popular beer is Eric the Red with the hoppiness of an IPA in a red ale.

A few blocks away, Post Brewing Co.[6] is being constructed in the former Veterans of Foreign Wars Mile High Post. It will be a 15-barrel brewery and chicken joint under the The Big Red F Restaurant Group’s[7] banner, which also owns and operates Jax Fish Houses, Lola in Lo-Hi and the West End Tavern in Boulder. The main chef will be Brett Smith, who is now at Zolo in Boulder.

A few months ago Selders said he answered an ad for a brewmaster at Post and said he got a phone call back within an hour. He wanted to get back into brewing and his wife’s sister lives in Lafayette, so the Post gig was a perfect fit. He made the trip out this summer and has been here only a few weeks, building the brewery.

“What I would like to do is nice solid beers that are intriguing, beers you want to come back to, not unapproachable beers, but still interesting,” he said.

Entering the Colorado beer scene has been intimidating with its well-established breweries, he said, but everyone has been welcoming. And Lafayette’s new scene is also going to be helpful. The Lafayette Urban Renewal Authority in July[10] approved a $75,000 loan to Big Red F for the restaurant/brewery Post Brewing Co.

“It is a really cool town,” he said. “We have been coming here for a number of years. I think the opening of these breweries is going to be a really powerful thing for us as brewers. It will be a nice thing to have brothers in arms right around the corner to support each other and help each other. It’s really cool.”